Review (NSFW): Super Soniko – Regular Edition (Creators’ Labo)

There is something about Soniko than I find inexplicably adorable and I’ve found myself wanting a nice figure of her more than a couple of times so when I spotted Yamato’s lovely Babydoll version, I decided that this was the one I wanted to add to our collection and thankfully Luth agreed! She’s just as cute as her in her promo shots but I do have a few issues with her quality so read on to find out why.

Please click my photos if you’d like higher resolution versions.

Super Soniko, also known as Sonico, is the mascot for Japanese visual novel developer nitro+. She got her start as a mascot when she was created to represent a nitro+ concert event called Nitro Super Sonic back in 2007 and her design was a hit among fans. Recognizing this, nitro+ named her after their event and her popularity has since seen much fanart and merchandise be released with even a game called Communication with Soniko (SoniComi) set to be released sometime in the near future. For more information on Soniko and SoniComi, please visit her official website here.

This Soniko figure is part of Yamato’s Creator’s Labo line and is my second figure from the line (the first being Asuka). Standing at around 210mm (which puts her at about a 1/8 scale) and made from PVC and ABS parts, Soniko retails for around 7,800 yen. She was sculpted by G.O. and released around mid May after a rather long delay of a couple of months.

There is also a DX version of this figure available which comes with a few more accessories. The DX version retails for quite a lot more than the standard release (12,800 yen versus 7,800 yen) and the accessories weren’t interesting enough for us to fork out the extra money.

Yamato’s Soniko makes good use of clear plastic with this figure and it’s been used wonderfully on her baby doll top to create a really nice effect. The sheer part has a subtle blue tone and multi-coloured hearts across the chest of her top are cute and precisely painted. However, the purple paint work on the sculpted in lace trim could be a little more consistent as the paint tends to clump heavily in some of the crevices.. I’m being a bit nit picky though!

Soniko’s macaroons are a pain in the arse. There is nothing to peg them into place.. they are simply supposed to balance on her fingertips. You’ll notice that throughout my review, I’ve put them aside in a lot of shots because I got quite frustrated with them falling off everytime I moved the figure. Well, that and they made me hungry whenever I saw them.

Yes! Kittens! And those lovely, looong legs. Soniko’s pose is quite clever and ridiculously cute. The viewing angle for the figure is quite low though as she’s looking down at the cat grabbing her shoe. I have her sitting on my desk at the moment but think I’ll move her up somewhere higher soon ’cause I can’t see her pretty face!

However, Soniko’s legs, ankles, feet and well.. her body in general looks good from almost any viewing angle!

Soniko’s expression of surprise is well portrayed with a surprising amount of detail with her slight blush down to her cutely sculpted teeth and tongue.

To take off her baby doll top, grip onto the blue and pink bands on her arm and gently pull her arms off.. they should slide out pretty easily! Her top slides off almost just as easily. Simply undo the clip between her breasts and slide it off her shoulders one strap at a time. It’s a pretty flexible piece of plastic so you shouldn’t need to be too gentle with it but do take some care and don’t go tearing it off!

Her body sculpt is nice and nothing too over the top. Subtle shading has been used to bring out her soft curves. I personally love her little belly button.. so cute! Her collarbones are rather nice too.

[Luth’s note]: Seeing how Zai isn’t properly appreciating the cast-off magic of this figure because she’s a straight female, I figured I should fill in a bit here with commentary on the parts you really care about. Things like that chest! I do appreciate the shape, not enormously big but still nice and plump, like ripe fruit. With her cast off, they are a little bit squished together because that’s how they’re supposed to fit in her babydoll but it’s not too bad. The peaks are a little weird, I noticed it too on some other cast-offs, it looks kinda like a bee-sting instead of a proper nipple.

Next, the hips are nice and sexy, and a lot of that has to do with the fantastic pose and Soniko’s nice curves. Surprisingly, Yamato’s rendition here is slimmer then canon Soniko, who is usually much more shapely, but she’s still got plenty of shape here. And finally, that juicy behind. As Zai mentioned, there is nice subtle shading that helps but the sculpt is pretty fantastic as well, giving it a nice, full shape; probably one of the best behinds in our collection at the moment. The thong doesn’t hurt either.

Super Soniko’s seam lines have been hidden well using arm bands.. even the clear bangle around her wrist hides a seam line.

It wouldn’t be a Soniko figure without her trademark headphones! I wonder what she’s listening to? Her profile lists some of her favourite bands as being Nirvana, Foo Fighters and.. Avril Lavigne. Interesting. Back to the headphones themselves, the paint job on them isn’t anything spectacular. I would have loved to have seen a more metallic look to them.

The paint work on her underwear is, well.. pretty terrible actually! It sure must be hard to paint on such a tiny thin area though, yeah?

Soniko’s base is super sweet and suits the look of the figure really well! The extra cat and macaroon is a great inclusion too. They come loose and don’t attach to anything so you’re able to scatter them around the base however you want.

The above cat’s feet clip into the base and Soniko’s foot hooks into the shoe that the cat is grabbing. It can be a bit tricky to get right at first, the cat is likely to pop out of the base if it’s not done correctly.

The macaroons are by far my least favourite thing about this figure. Not only do they constantly fall out of her hand, the paint work is crap to the point where it looks like the macaroons themselves have been smushed together or met some other unfortunate accident. Just a little more precision would have made a world of difference.

Soniko’s ginger kitten makes up for the mess of macaroons though, isn’t it precious?

I’ve forgotten to take a box shot but if you’re interested in seeing it, Hobby Search have an image of it here. It’s a small and fairly nondescript box that shouldn’t cost to much to ship if you purchase her online.

Overall, Soniko is a good looking and well priced figure that is a welcome addition to our collection! Quality wise, I’m not quite sure she’s up to par with Orchid Seed’s recent Soniko release but I do (ever so slightly) prefer the style of this Soniko over that one.

I’ll finish up with some leftover shots! The backdrop I used is a dress of mine although if I were to reshoot, I wouldn’t use a white backdrop again. Also, thanks to Luth for helping me out with some additional review text. We both like the figure but obviously for different reasons, haha.

24 Comments

You can’t imagine how badly I want to get my copy of her now, she should hopefully arrive next week.
In your pictures she looks a bit better than I’ve already imagined.

The body of Soniko looks like it is from the time before she started to eat the macaroons, in general her character looks chubbier than model like, but I have no problem with that either ^^

Aside from her sexy butt this figure appears more cute than sexy, with is the exact opposite of Orchid Seeds Soniko. Mhh how should I say this, her boobs are looking rather cute like that and not as gravity defying like the ones from my Soniko bondage version. The cats are cute, but when they will bully Soniko too much I’d put them in a cage

too bad that the paintjob of her thong and the macaroons isn’t that accurate, but her face seems to be painted far better. Also the colors of her dress looks quite nice. Furthermore the pose of her looks nice and sexy, I like that^^. Oh and this base looks very nice in terms of colors and shape.

Well that was a nice review of her with nice pictures, even though not everything about this Soniko turned out 100%, Im really looking forward to receive my package and do my review

I’d have thought she would have arrived by now! Here’s hoping for her safe arrival next week then.

Mm, I would have preferred her to be even just a little more on the chubby side like her usual design but I’m not going to complain about it ’cause she still looks adorable as she is here.

They both give a very different feel, I agree! This cute baby doll one is probably better for me but I’d be happy with Orchid Seed one too. Aww, poor kitties! They do look like they’re being a bit annoying though.

The base was a nice surprise for me, I didn’t know it’d be like that until I received her. Oh, maybe her underwear on your Soniko will be a little neater than mine. Will be interesting to compare the two anyway.

Thank you, I’m glad you liked it! I hope she lives up to your expectations and look forward to your review, of course! ^^

Sal always takes 3-4 weeks, usually 4 weeks in my case
The heartshaped base is really fitting for her so lovely ^^
Thx hope I can live up to your expectations, I’ve prepared nearly all accessories for the shooting, still waiting for a mini table and two chairs from re-ment.
no cost or effort is too great for Soniko XD

Yeah, as Fabienne said above.. she could do with a few more of those macaroons!

I knooow, even action figures will usually get some kind of nub or at least a different hand to grip stuff like that. I find loose accessories like that really irritating during photo shoots! I swore a lot at those poor, innocent macaroons.

Wow this version of Sonico looks really nice, so nice you’ve tempted me to try looking at getting a hold of her now. I’m hoping one pop-ups on amiami.

Long legs are long. Her high heels make them look even longer too. The little kittens she comes with are mischievously cute. It’s really cool their not stuck down and can be moved around to create different scenes. I also like her dress where the transparency has been put to good use. The placement of the different stars acts as a fair cover-up of what’s underneath.

It’s a shame the paint job of her thong and macarons is rather rough looking. I assume the individual macarons and plate are all clumped together?

I hope you manage to get a hold of her or I’d feel a little bad for tempting you!

They are indeed, her long legs are all kinds of lovely.
I often forget that the kittens aren’t stuck down and they end up on the floor when I go to move the figure!

Mm yup, the macaroons and the plate are all clumped together. I can only imagine how much more annoying they’d be if they weren’t.. I have little patience for small, fiddly parts that have to balance on top of something, haha.

The job done on the thongs look bad^^” You would think they would be able to do a good job on that.

If only they did a better job for the macarons, it would of made the overall figure better. And man, I love her legs! it’s just so, wow><! Her body sculpt is lovely, I've always realised that all Sonico figures have a nice body XD The paint job on the cat seems a bit blotchy=/ but cute nonetheless

Sadly this figure is too NSFW for me to display at home^^" Maybe when I move into my own place I can have NSFW figures!

I think this is the Sonico figure I like the most so far. I can’t stop digging her cute face and headphones. The one thing I don’t like about it are the clothes perhaps I might be alone in this but I would like to see a Sonico in nice sensible street clothes.

Still cool figure, never payed attention to these guys but it’s good to see they can make nice looking figures.

Hehe, she looks cute in just about anything to me but the illustrations I’ve seen of her in street wear have always looked really nice. If her popularity continues to rise maybe we’ll see something in the future! I hope so anyway.

You know, I wonder if there’s an official illustration of Sonico out there that actually show off her ears. Does she even have them? Maybe she was the victim some some sort horrible assault during which both of her ears got cut off. Then the purpose of those fancy headphones would be to conceal the remains of her horribly mutilated ears! God damn, I am a horrible person to even imagine that.

Anyhow, very nice review as usual! Sonico is a testament to the seemingly universal appeal of breasts and curves — when a character is visually attractive enough, story and personality becomes completely irrelevant, it seems! I really like Luth’s cast-off interception. No figure review is complete without a creepy gushfest about boobs and booty! ONE OF US, ONE OF US!

It’s a shame those macaroons are so unwieldy. I’ve never had Macaroons before, but now I really want to give them a try. Just look at those cats going after Sonico’s shoes — they’re absolutely mad for macaroons!

I actually had a brief look for pictures of her without headphones but couldn’t find anything.. can’t say I did any extensive searching or anything though, haha. I have a sudden desire to try and pry her headphones off this poor figures head now, oh dear!

Yes, Luth was very displeased with my lack of pervy gushing! From now on, he can handle the cast off stuff or I’ll get him to help out again! I couldn’t really come up with much more than “Well, her tits look alright I guess..?” I am a shame to figure reviewers everywhere!

You really should give macaroons a try if you come across some! I don’t have much of a sweet tooth but I love them. Pistachio macaroons are probably my favourite ones and.. goddamnit, I’ll be quiet now.

I tried to be a good perv because honestly, if you’re not perving when reviewing a figure like this, you’re not giving a complete review ;). Zai did try though and it was funny seeing her agonize over it, wahaha.
Macaroons are awesome! At first I thought, oh, they’re just funny little cookies. But after I tried one for the first time, they’re actually little parcels of amazingness! I can’t even describe it because the texture is so unique. Definitely pick a flavor(s) you think you’d like but I think the consistency is my favorite part of macaroons.

I’ve still got this figure in her box, safe from dust and my clumsiness while I work my way through the review queue. She looks fantastic though, with the lovely pink hair and eyes and the headphones … and the thong! Truly the pinnacle of drawers that is. Shame the paintwork is a bit rough, it would’ve been nice for a bit more care to have been spent on the most important part of the figure.

I like how the white dress backdrop looks; I’ve been wondering how I want to shoot this Sonico and I have no ideas at all, though I’ve been leaning towards a brighter look. Something about this figure seems kinda like it works better on white than black.

Hopefully she’s somewhere in your queue, it looks like we’ll be getting a lot of good pictures coming up of her with Fabienne really gearing up for her shot too. I really like the thong as well but being such a tiny piece of cloth the overpaint is even more exaggerated; such a shame. I’m thinking of maybe taking a knife or toothpick sometime and seeing if I can fix it up.

I was surprised how well those white dress photos came out when Zai shot it and coupled with some of those poses made for an innocent yet come-hither look. I had to go “You trying to tell me something?”, which promptly earned me a smack.

It seems like the slightly dodgy paintwork on the thong isn’t a consistent flaw with this figure so here’s hoping you got one with a decent paint job!

All I could think of when deciding how to shoot of was using white and a lot of afternoon sunlight so I just dug out a dress, opened the curtains and started shooting away, lol. I thought about using blue for a bit but thought it might cool it down too much.

That photo of her disjointed is scary >.<
Who doesnt find her adorable huh? shes the moemoe kyun of Ntro + haha.
anyway its a beautiful figure but i really think they went a bit overboard with the painting, i know it looks fine or theres a certain paint mistakes in certain areas, but dont you think the painting color doesnt really fit the original artwork? like her hair, if it was lighter i think it would be better, (in the dark pink area at the bottom) Im quite annoyed when theres a slight difference from the artwork to the figure but it cant be helped, hard to make the thing match completely haha. oh i didnt know there was kittens! even better and wait the macaroons come as individual items =/ no wonder it falls.
leftover ecchi shot huh, im sure Super Soniko fans wont mind =)

The paintwork is a lot more vibrant than the original artwork but I worry that she might look a bit washed out if they went with a really pastel look. Hehe, I don’t mind so much if there is a change to the original artwork as long as it’s for the better and not just a sculpter slacking off! xD